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JP dropped Dashboard Hula Doll.
Vitale has had a long day. He's had a long day and the day seems like it's just getting started. As the son of a Don and their designated healer, Vitale has a lot of long days, sometimes before noon. So after having to heal a few gunshot wounds and recovering from them himself, he decided he was going to go out for a drink somewhere that he doesn't think he'll be followed, a mutant bar, a place where nothing will be asked of him and alcohol will exist so long as he keeps putting down cash.
When Vitale steps into the bar, he takes a deep breath in and releases it, letting the smoke from cigarettes and the smell of liquor fill his lungs and relax him in a way that nothing else ever can. He walks up to the bar, orders whiskey and settles down for a moment, letting the bar noise soothe him, soothe away the memories of the day and he can pretend for a minute that this is where he belongs.
JP was there, and though his knuckles were as bust up as they were that shiner was still a lovely dark three days old, but it was getting there. The jukebox was playing, well, whatever JP wanted right now to everyone's chagrin for a little bit though he let it be shared. Mid-game he wandered through the slight haze of stale smoke that hung in teh air of everyone's favourite neon lit dive bar and safe place. Cue in hand the scruffy pile of trouble wihtthe relaxed drawl of Creole asked of the bartender, "Hit me up man? I 'preciate it." Because one is never rude to the bartender and anyone who is smart knows that's your best friend in the room and the guy to keep happy.
Vitale is staring down at the drink in front of him, doing some kind of bar meditation in his head, so when the other man approaches, the first thing that he notices is that the other man's knuckles are battered to hell, probably fighting, but that doesn't neccesarily mean that the other man started the fight. If he were a mutant, and odds were that him being here alone, meant he was, someone else could have provoked him for that fact alone. He draws his eyes up the length of the other man's arm to his face where he was wearing a shiner to match the battered knuckles. "Does the other guy look worse?" He asks, conversationally.
JP knew too there was a guy at the door that screened for people being a mutant before letting them in. The question caught him off guard giving the Italian a wry grin, "C'mon, who else look' this pretty hmm? Course they don'. Mon ami an' m'self? We made nice with some people in need of reeducation." He winked to the gal behind the bar who was going by the name 'Splash' and could move fluids at will which was great when one had to mix multiple drinks at once. She got a wink and a dimpled grin layered with that bullshit southern charm of his that promised scandal. Looking to Vitale he asked direct, "You shoot pool?"
Vitale already liked this guy a lot, especially when he winks at the girl behind the bar. He thinks he may have met his match when it comes to the art of flirting with anything that has a pulse. He tilts his head to capture that accent, wondering if it's bullshit to impress the pretty girl behind the bar or not. "My apologies, I don't know anyone who could pull off a black eye the way you do." He teases, smiling in that charming way he has as he stands up when the other man asks if he shoots pool. "I do." He offers the other man his hand to shake. "Vitale, by the way."
JP apparently was the real deal for better and worse. Some slurred mesh of sloppy French, Southern, and mischief. The grin hung there offering a hand out to the Italian, a weathered hand made of hard time and hard labour. Eyebrows went up to the gal at the bar, "Spash hook up my new bes' friend here with a beer before he lose his shirt t'me on the table." Usually sharks don't announce their intentions, then again he couldn't make VItale play for money either. If that is even what he intended. An easy shrug came with a good natured mood, "Eeeeh some of us grow up used t'it. You go' siblings then ya know."
Vitale grins and takes the weathered hand offered to him, JP would feel pain ease off of him rapidly, healing the knuckles first, the bruised eye. These injuries at least, seem to flash for only a second onto Vitale's hand, his face before they fade as if they hadn't existed in the first place, easy things to heal, those were, Vitale hardly feels it. "My shirt? That's what you want?" Vitale looks down to the one he's wearing to see if it's all that exciting, one of his many dress shirts, after all, he doesn't go out in public without looking his best. "You look much better without the shiner." He says with a nod, waiting to see if he pulls anything else off the other man before he tears his hand away.
JP arched an ayebrow and definately felt a 'something' even if he didn't know what. His hand rotated around and saw the parage of colours wash into and then off of Vitale. "Woah, thaaaaaaa's a useful trick." He turned th hand back over snickering, "Careful how you say that some places. WHere I'm from? Means take all you' money winnin it off ya. Poker, pool."
"This is mine," Vitale says, watching as the other man turns his hand but doesn't yank free, which makes Vitale hold a little tighter and pull something far worse off of the other man. The knuckles, the bruised eye were nothing to the pain transferring to Vitale's ribs, but even that, as it moves from JP's body to his own, only makes Vitale wince. He'd healed broken bones before, bullet wounds, recently, a busted ear drum, this wasn't anything he couldn't stand. "Ah, the other guy looked worse because you were hiding the nastiest part, huh?" Vitale says through gritted teeth. "How's that feel?"
JP twinged an eye peering at VItale, "Lil embarassed. Tha' ain' yours t' take. Shoulda asked. You know tha's prolly great way t'catch the Clap round here. Still he couldn't argue withthe guy and likely owed him a thank you. He murmured, "The other guy was a bigot who can bite my nuts. He' gettin what's comin to em." That seemed to be a promise. Before letting go of that handshake Gearhead squint, "You ok?"
Vitale chuckles when JP warns him against the clap. "You're not wrong, but it wouldn't stay long with me. Rapid healing, wouldn't have to worry about it. Broken bones and cancer are the only things that stay awhile, or anything that I haven't healed myself from before, a new pain that my body hasn't been trained to heal." Vitale explained even though JP isn't asking, sometimes letting his 'patient' know how it all works sometimes eases their guilt. "I'm fine, I promise. It's fading as we speaking, mending itself. Though, this does give you an unfair edge on our pool game. Best two out of three?"
JP winced, "Man that's lucky." Okay he was a lil jealous of that one. That look was vague apology, but there was no guilt. It could be described as 'what can I get away with? look(tm). No shock there. JP, rascal king he was, wasn't holly the devil incarnate. Let's face it that guy hung out in much nicer places and dressed a lot nicer too. "Tell you what, you did me a solid, how about, aaaaaah, I'll buy the beer and we jes' play f'fun?" Try to scalp the guy that gave him his ribs back before aheist? Yeah. that was a lil over the line for him.
"Listen, if you get the clap twice a week, I'm not takin' it from you. Once, and done. You get one shot. Use protection." He teases at the look that sets into JP's features, shaking his finger at the other man like a mother would. "You can buy me a beer and tell me your name and I'll call it even." Vitale counters. He does notice that JP drops the money part of the deal now.
JP wasn't chastized, but let that grin stretch from one ear to teh other, "C'mon, I ain' that bad." He paused and wobbled his head, "Most weeks. Fo' real though? Merci, merci." His eyes rolled to the jukebox off to teh side and it flipped to Boy Named Sue by johnny Cash. "Jp, or mos' jes' call me Gearhead." His head wobbled in a bit of a lose figure 8. "Mechanic, among… other jobs."
"No, not most weeks, you get /one/ time getting anything like that and I'll take it away but if you make another mistake with your bedroom habits, I'm not taking it again." Vitale corrects, shaking his head. "I'll take all the broken bones, bruises and bullet holes you got though. I just might start charging you." He winks at JP. "Not in money of course, got plenty of that. You're gonna start owing me dinner if you rack up too many charges. JP, huh? I like it." He doesn't seem to catch on that the jukebox switching songs was JP's doing as they approach the pool table. His hand does move to his ribs, mirroring the side that had been injured on JP as they heal.
JP chocrtled and re-racked the balls on the table to line them up for the break. "Hell, tha' soundin' about fair t'me. Deal." At the comment about his name came the dry comment, "Yeah? Well when your name is 27 letters long you learn t'love foldin' that' shit in half." WHen the song finished his eyes fliked up to the jukebox and back to VItale. "Wha'chu wanna year? Yous Italian yeah? 'what's in that? Dio? Connie Francis? What'chu wan'?"
"27 letters, damn man, you got it rough. I thought 'Vitale' was bad because none of my teachers knew how to say it. 'Vital', 'vit-tail', I got all kinds. 27 letters just sounds ridiculous." Vitale says and raises his eyebrow at the question, before he makes the connection. "The jukebox was you, huh? Is it anything that runs on electricity? I'm a big fan of The Beatles, if that's acceptable."
JP tried to remember the Beatles. He shook his head, "Naw, anyhtin mechanical. LIke I can't make the speakers go if it's not plugged in, but I can make it change whatever I wan'. Got a pal that cna fix that tho." Still if he remembered correctly he remembered where one of the 45's were and in short order Hard Day's NIght was playing. Vitale got a wink of 'there you go'. He chuckled and let Vitale break. "Jean-Pierre Marius Bonaventure. Is too much for any kid t'spell so we all call me JP and anyon say otherwise? Well we reeducate em."
"That's incredibly handy. So you could tell a car what to do? That's awesome, man. I would have never guessed that. Can probably get away with most of it, that way, no one would predict that." Vitale is clearly not innocent when it comes to theivery, he's thinking about how useful that skill would be to his father, but the more he thinks about that, the more he thinks he's becoming too much like his father. He smiles when Hard Day's Night starts to play. "That name of yours is a doozy, real fancy too. JP is much better, you're right." He moves over to pick up a cue as he thinks hard about whether or not he wants to offer JP a job.
JP ran his tongue along his bottom lip with a wry grin, proud but laid back about it, "Hey, I didn' steal my car. She follow me home like a puppy. Tha' don' count." He said this like there was an official ruling on that. He sniffed noting his headache and onset of a cold were absent. iiiinteresting. "In Lousiana? Everythin' French, and therefor it all 's pretty. We can' help that, mon ami, but, sometime you should go. Visit. See a city not in no big hurry."
Vitale raises both his hands, even the one with the cue in it, innocently. "Hey now, I wasn't accusing you of stealin' her. I don't think I even said the word steal, you're mighty touchy." He teases a little. "A pretty name for a pretty guy, they named you accurately. I might take you up on that offer, if I can ever get out of town. Plenty of work here for me. People in my business are always gettin' hurt."
JP warmed a grin to Vitale with a chuckle apparently screwing with him a lil bit. At the compliment confirmation the greaser preened like one proud delinquient peacock. "Might have a couple jobs comin up. Might have t'call you up on that dinner tho, or… somethin worth your while, man. May be damages, plural, but hey, always a good time. Can't keep Mutants down for long or shit gon' splode." That sounded like a big job lined up.
"I'm a good friend to have, pretty useful when you're in a pinch, or you've been pinched. I'll take just about anything, but if you're close to death, you're going to have to stay a few nights with me and let me leach it off you slow. I can't take too much at once. I have limitations." He explains, clearly thinking that JP might bite more off than he can chew. "What are you dealing with?"
JP arched an eyebrow tilting his head lining up his shot and ka-TAK sank a stripe into teh side pocket with purpose. "Ya know I was you? I'd lead wit' that and not tell em yous jes' need a handshake. You'd get a ton of play that way." There was a dimpled smirk, "I should be doin that advertisin thing I swear." Shaking his head he lined up the purple stripe which was on course but for to nick the #1 ball and go off course. He pointed the cue to VItale. "Jes' gon' say hi to some assholes and give 'em a wakup call. All good."
"You weren't gonna let me take it if I would have told you. Some people like to suffer more than they should. Or, they feel guilty watching their injuries turn up on my skin. It's not pretty. Though, I suppose you're right, I could pretend that I need a few nights to take anything off of you. You sure you're not still hurtin' anywhere? I might need to take you home to thoroughly check you." He flirts effortlessly with a smile. "Mmm, 'hi' doesn't usually end with broken bones as far as I know." He bends to line up his own shot, aiming for a stripe that had settled close to a corner pocket.
JP boggled, "How else you find out nothin." Hey he had a humor about these things. "Yous never know until you's askin. Sides I think I accidently got someone huntin a lobster… Which will be hysterical if they come up wit' one." He didn't elaborate. The comment about hi being elss hostile got a half-cackle from him as he drank his beer. "Again, mon ai, how you know and how that isn't a good time too?"
"Are you speaking in tongues? A lobster? Why a lobster? I can't tell if you're acceptin' my offer of a thorough examination or not." He teases, sinking that stripe easy and moving onto another mark, this one he narrowly misses sinking into a corner pocket. He straightens and nods at JP. "If you're getting broken bones from a 'good time', you might want to reconsider the lovemaking you're having, friend."
JP snorts and says "Because when someone with a great ass is runnin their mouth? You set the bar high and if they meet it? Double bonus. Sides. Lobster is expensive. That aside I ain't gonna sweat a couple ribs over no good time. Far as I'm concerned that's a good time earned. But nah." He waited for Vitale to clear the table, but he didn't and instead worked on following up his next shot. "Bah, me an a couple pals? GOin after some Mutant hunters… givin people a hard time." There was a faint eagerness of an exhilleration waiting to get into taht fight.
Vitale smiles and nods as JP explains. "I feel like if you know someone with a great ass, you probably just take them home, but if you want to make them work hard for it, there's no shame in that, either. Lobster /is/ expensive." Vitale's easy going smile turns into a frown at the mention of 'Mutant Hunters'. "Look me up after if you're hurt, or let me know when you're going and I can actively help you. I'm pretty good with a gun, you know, and my fists."
